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The bench of the Madras High Court said that if a pregnant woman took extra 30 seconds during the test to select a Grade-II constable, the time should be considered insignificant and she should be considered eligible for selection. Hon’ble Justice S Vimala, by allowing a petition from R Devika, stated that, according to the rules, the petitioner had to qualify 100 meters of running to complete the race in 17.50 seconds. But the petitioner took .30 seconds more and was declared to have not qualified in the physical efficiency test. The judge said that this matter was controversial.
According to her, the participation of the petitioner in a running event is in itself a courageous act since people placed in a similar position would fear a miscarriage. She added that this aspect, even if it is not a factor to consider in the test, is the general factor that should be considered for the selection in the constable’s post. The respondents were ordered to consider the provisions of the Constitution of India and the guidelines relating to the maternity protection and the convention of the International Labor Organization. This can help them to frame the requisite guidelines by providing them with the best possible measures to support women candidates in difficult circumstances such as pregnancy, motherhood or other natural causes.
Justice S Vimala further said that taking into account that the petitioner would be in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, the board for the recruitment of uniformed services is directed to select the women petitioner in the post of Grade II police constable or grade-II jail warden as on October 31, 2018, with all attendant benefits.
She declared that the concessions granted to pregnant women should not be interpreted as a concession towards their personal comfort. The continuity of generations is maintained with the contribution of childbirth without which the entire existence of mankind and the world would become impossible. No pregnant woman can be denied an opportunity to have adequate means of subsistence merely because her biological reason did not permit her to appear for the physical efficiency test at any given time, she said. A pregnant woman cannot be forced to undergo endurance test at a time when it was harmful to her life and the baby in her womb, the judge said. The framers of the Indian Constitution made provision that women should receive special treatment in the case of employment to eliminate social and economic backwardness of women. The constitutional mandate was made to empower women in the Indian society in order to enable effective equality between men and women, she said. In the present case, the petitioner claims to be eight weeks pregnant on the day the physical efficiency test was performed and therefore she could not complete the competition within the prescribed time. The judge added that she should be selected and her inability to perform efficiently on the day when the physical efficiency test was conducted due to her biological reason should not be a bar to her appointment in the constable’s post.
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